The coronavirus pandemic has become a catalyst for many companies when it comes to digitalization. In a short period of time, many companies have had to switch to working from home, create online stores, offer delivery services, hold video conferences with clients instead of face-to-face meetings, and much more. The push for digitalization in 2020/2021 is certainly largely due to Corona, but it is also due to the countless benefits of digitalization that we want to take a closer look at in this article.
1. Better communication / more effective collaboration
During the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis in March/April 2020, Germany was in a video conferencing frenzy. Suddenly, previously unknown providers such as Zoom became known to everyone. This can be clearly seen in the share price of Zoom Video Communications, which has increased nine times in a few months compared to the level before the pandemic. In addition to video conferencing solutions such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, many companies are also increasingly implementing digital messaging tools such as Slack. Messenger tools allow for more direct communication and better grouping of topics than in the case of classic email communication. The goal of these tools is to make it as easy as possible to communicate with colleagues, customers, and suppliers in geographically dispersed locations.
A current Deutsche Telekom survey from November 2020 also shows that these new communication tools are not only trendy, but actually create added value for most companies.
More flexible work models thanks to new forms of communication
These new forms of communication allow many employers to offer their employees more flexible working models with mobile working or working from home, even outside of the pandemic. This can also lead to increased employee satisfaction, as regularly canceling commutes leaves more time for the employee's friends, family, and hobbies. While I'm sure that working from home 100% of the time is by no means a great idea for the vast majority of office workers, most would probably be happy to have the option of working from home 1-2 days per workweek.
2. Better knowledge transfer
Companies often rely on vast amounts of knowledge without utilizing it properly. This is not only about knowledge about the products or services offered, but also about the company's internal processes, procedures, best practices, etc. This includes, for example, how to properly use a CRM system - how to create a new customer - or with an online store - how to register new products - and much more. All of this is knowledge that your employees have, but is often only verbally shared among colleagues or concentrated among certain people. If these people leave the company, the company often loses valuable knowledge that these people have often created and collected over the years.
Therefore, companies must clearly document this knowledge. The best options for this are dedicated company wikis or collaboration software such as Confluence. This has two advantages for companies:
Corporate wikis help employees and the company
Knowledge is stored centrally. This knowledge is stored by the company and its employees. Individual employees can collect and combine their knowledge on a particular topic. In this way, you create a centralized knowledge base in your company.
It is easier for individual employees to access this knowledge. This means that you don't have to search the company for the right contact person to solve a specific problem. The principle here is similar to Google. There, we also just enter certain terms in the search bar if we are looking for certain information. Your wiki can work the same way. If you don't believe me, take a look at our public customer wiki and see for yourself. ?
Benefits of digitalization - corporate wiki as a central knowledge platform
With an internal company wiki, the benefits of digitalization become directly tangible for your employees. Even if one or two employees may initially shy away from efforts to create knowledge contributions, experience shows that over time the vast majority of employees will really appreciate the benefits of detailed internal documentation. If you give your employees the opportunity to recognize useful Wiki articles with a like or a nice comment, your employees will be further motivated to make an effort and share their knowledge with their colleagues.
3. Easier scalability / Faster growth
Today, digitalization often no longer means investing a lot of money in expensive hardware and buying software. Instead, SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions and leased hardware resources (IaaS, PaaS) are playing an increasingly important role in companies. Not surprisingly, global sales of SaaS solutions grew almost tenfold between 2010 and 2020, according to a Statista study from April 2021. Two of the main reasons why more and more companies are switching to cloud-based solutions are greater flexibility and fewer tied-up resources. The introduction of new software products is significantly reduced thanks to SaaS, as a full installation on their own hardware is no longer required. Thanks to such solutions, companies are usually more flexible when it comes to the term of the contract. Modern SaaS products can now often be canceled on a monthly basis, eliminating the need for long-term commitments due to the purchase and time-consuming installation and configuration of a software product.
Especially for young, fast-growing companies, cloud-based solutions offer the flexibility needed to be able to grow rapidly with the company. The SaaS provider takes over the management of the hardware (fault protection, access protection, backup, etc.). This can be especially useful for SMEs if they don't have in-house IT staff.
4. Better customer service / More customer satisfaction
In the days of email traffic and instant messaging services like WhatsApp or Signal instead of traditional mail, customer expectations for response times have changed dramatically. If you used to have to plan several days for written communication between companies by mail, digital delivery of emails or WhatsApp messages is immediate. Accordingly, customers expect a very quick response to their problems when they contact a company. Ideally, companies should respond to emails within a day. This does not mean that companies are expected to resolve all issues within one day. Often it is enough to acknowledge receipt of an email with an automated response. Although this may sound trite. Don't underestimate the impact of such (small) measures on your customers.
Ticket systems and chatbots for large companies
When a company reaches a certain size, more structured forms of written communication are available than simple email communication. This can be, for example, an internal ticket system (issue tracking system) in which customer issues can be handled in a centralized and clear manner. The advantage of a ticket system like Zendesk or Jira is that it is clearly grouped and easy to track. Unlike email correspondence, a ticket system consolidates all correspondence related to a specific process for all participants (both company employees and customers or suppliers). In addition, the company can easily categorize and prioritize processes, and thus quickly assign them to the responsible employee for processing. Chatbots can also be a solution for companies with a large number of customer inquiries. These chatbots are integrated into the website and can even answer simple questions automatically. Non-trivial questions can then be answered by an employee directly in the chat. Live chat on your website is a very direct and easy way to communicate with customers.
Document management helps to find information quickly
But you can ensure greater customer satisfaction not only in written communication with your customers. You can also take advantage of the benefits of digitalization by contacting us by phone. Take a quick self-test. Put yourself in the following situation:
When customers call you with questions about a particular invoice. Can you quickly find the relevant invoice in your file to answer the customer's question over the phone? Does this work even if the invoice is several weeks old?
Wenn Sie Ihre Rechnungen klassisch noch in analoger Form in Ordnern und Papierakten in Regalen in Ihrem Büro aufbewahren, mag das vielleicht funktionieren, wenn Sie eine überschaubare Anzahl an Rechnungen und Kunden haben. Ab 50 - 100 Rechnungen im Monat wird das aber schon sehr schwierig bis nahezu unmöglich. Hier bieten sich moderne Dokumentenmanagementsysteme (DMS) an, in denen Sie alle Ihre Dokumente digital verwalten können. Echte Dokumentenmanagementlösungen bieten im Gegensatz zur digitalen Ablage von Dokumenten auf dem Laufwerk den Vorteil der Volltextsuche. Ebenso sind DMS die Grundvoraussetzung für die Einhaltung der GoBD. Gerade die Volltextsuche im DMS spart Ihnen sehr viel Zeit, selbst wenn Ihre Ordnerstruktur bzw. Ablagestruktur auf Ihrem Laufwerk ordentlich gepflegt wird. Und seien wir mal ehrlich - trotz aller Bemühungen finden wir einige Dokumente bei einer gewachsenen Laufwerksstruktur irgendwann einfach nicht mehr.
Schnellere Auskunft direkt am Telefon
Um nochmal auf unser Eingangsszenario zurückzukommen. With einem Dokumentenmanagementsystem müssen Sie nur die Rechnungsnummer, die Kundennummer oder den Kundenname bzw. ein otheres Merkmal in das Suchfeld Ihres DMS eingeben und Sie finden sofort die benötigte Rechnung. Damit können Sie Ihren Kunden direct am Telefon Auskunft geben und müssen keinen Rückruf vereinbaren. Ihre Kunden wissen solch einen Service sehr zu schätzen. Ein DMS ist auch ein guter Ausgangspunkt, wenn Sie Ihre Verwaltung weg von papierbasierten Abläufen und hin zu einem papierlosen bzw. papierarmen Büro umstellen wollen. Auf welche Punkte Sie bei der Auswahl eines passenden Dokumentenmanagementsystems für Ihr papierloses Büro achten sollen, erfahren Sie in diesem Artikel.
The Benefits of Digitalization
Digitalization offers numerous advantages for businesses, including improved efficiency, cost savings, and enhanced customer experiences. By adopting digital tools and technologies, companies can streamline operations, reduce manual errors, and provide more personalized services. One area where digitalization has had a significant impact is the online casino industry. Online casinos are constantly innovating to retain player loyalty through digital enhancements and personalized experiences.
Digitalization has transformed industries worldwide, offering benefits such as enhanced efficiency, better connectivity, and innovative solutions. In the gaming world, digitalization enables seamless integration of technologies like AI, blockchain, and VR to create immersive experiences. For example, AI is revolutionizing the gaming industry by providing personalized experiences and smarter gameplay mechanics. Learn more about how AI is entering the gaming industry and what it means for players. By embracing digitalization, industries can unlock new opportunities and deliver unparalleled value to their users.
5. More self-service options
The benefits of digitalization also give companies many new opportunities to do things themselves. For example, when it comes to creating and managing a simple website for your own company. A few years ago, this required knowledge of HTML or CSS. Nowadays, so-called page builders offer a website creation kit with which you can simply drag and drop with a few mouse clicks. Pre-made design templates also allow anyone to create a graphically appealing website. To be honest, at this point, it should be said that building a website without web design knowledge only works for simple homepages without any outside help. This offers young and small companies in particular the opportunity to save money at the initial stage.
In 2020, many traditional (retail) merchants had to quickly create their own online presence and make purchases when they closed their regular stores. Even if for most retailers online sales were probably unable to compensate for the losses from brick-and-mortar retail, for many it was still a small contribution to at least mitigating the damage. In fact, just like building websites, it has become much easier to set up an online store in recent years. Simple e-commerce solutions like Shopify make this possible.
In general, there are many instructions and useful tips on the Internet today, ranging from creating the website mentioned above to tips and tricks on how to use various software solutions to simple and clear explanations of legal texts. It is much easier to obtain knowledge and information on various topics today - a benefit of digitalization that is useful to everyone.
6. More efficient processes
Automation is one of the most common buzzwords in connection with the term digitalization. When most people think of automation, they probably think of robots in industrial plants, self-driving cars, or something similar. But all companies, not just industrial ones, can benefit from the growing opportunities of automation.
So how does this work? For example, many manual and often monotonous administrative activities can be (partially) automated. To give a practical example, think about processing incoming invoices. If you receive a few dozen invoices every month, they can be checked, approved, paid, and recorded manually. If you have more invoices, processing incoming invoices is time-consuming and often even ties up entire staff positions.
Digitalization has transformed industries, offering benefits like increased efficiency, enhanced connectivity, and the integration of cutting-edge technologies. The entertainment sector, including casinos, has embraced this shift, creating opportunities for live-streamed performances and virtual experiences. For example, music stars with casino residencies have used digital platforms to reach global audiences. Learn more about the top 6 music stars with casino residencies and how digitalization is shaping entertainment. By leveraging these advancements, industries can continue to innovate and offer unique experiences to their audiences.
With automated invoice processing, everyone can reap the benefits of digitalization
Automated inbound invoice processing solutions can automatically collect your invoices from a scanner or your inbox. Using artificial intelligence, your invoices are checked for formal accuracy and completeness. Such systems can also take care of the approval process, automatic payment, and preparation for booking. According to a study conducted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with Goethe University, switching from paper-based invoice processing to digital processing saves up to 80% of time. This solution allows you to take advantage of the benefits of digitalization by freeing your employees from annoying routine tasks. Your employees can then invest the time they save in productive and useful activities.
The example of invoice processing shown here allows all companies to organize their administration more efficiently. Of course, there are also countless examples of new digital technologies helping to increase efficiency potential in various business sectors. Whether it is more targeted use of fertilizers in agriculture through digital soil analysis or soil measurement, automated warehouses for logistics companies, or new smaller and inexpensive robots that can also be used by medium-sized companies to produce smaller quantities. Digitalization offers individual advantages that almost every company can benefit from.
